April 26, 2012

benjamin's stomach is a black hole.literally. i'm fairly certain he consumes more in an hour than a member of the Ohio State football team takes in all day. and by fairly certain i mean not at all certain. i haven't really spent any one-on-one time with the football team.but, you get the point.

the kid can eat.

yesterday he shoveled in a rather impressive dinner, ate his 2 Girl Scout cookies for desert, and then came back for a string cheese followed by a fruit snack within the hour. he made his way back over to me after his second post-dinner-and-dessert snack. he leaned over with a concerned look on his face. "i think my dinner got stuck in my throat, mommy."i briefly wondered if he was in physical pain before he clarified, "because i feel like i'm still empty in my tummy."

April 23, 2012

this weekend, we watched Thor for our saturday night movie with the boys. this involves moving our lounge chair over next to the couch, and all four of us piling in a small space together. and lot of popcorn. sweet for the boys. salty for mom.

anyway, we were watching Thor. at one point, his hammer, or Mjolnir, is stuck in the ground. his father, Odin, has stated that it can only go to the person who is worthy of it/ready for it/i forget exactly what the parameter was. think Merlin, but a hammer. anyway, Thor makes his way to the hammer and goes to pull it out of the ground. no such luck.

benny was really confused as to why Thor couldn't pick up his hammer. bern suggested, "maybe he needs to be a little more good inside."anth, completely serious, "maybe he needs to work out a little more."

yep, anth.that's it. the point of the Thor movie is to push the wellness agenda in America.

April 20, 2012

today i have been wandering about campus, playing host to a lovely person who is interviewing to serve as a Hall Director here at OSU next year.mainly, this looks like me walking her around to interviews, making sure she gets fed, and making lots of small talk along the way.and trying to give people the "5 minute warning" in the least awkward way possible.

in the middle of this, i had a few minutes to stop and check email.an email from ben's classroom caught my eye. whenever i see an email from benny's daycare teachers, i check that first.typically, ben has injured himself.

today, that was not the case. . .

i love these little gems (about our little gem) from school. apparently benny has not only been blessed with my sometimes feisty spirit, but also my love of a little taskiness.

April 18, 2012

. . . i am raising boys who will shut the door when they enter a single-person restroom.

instead of, perhaps, someday being college students who leave the door 3/4 open. while piddling. in a restroom that opens to a public hallway. a hallway, in fact, of offices. perhaps i should mention. . . said restroom is DIRECTLY across from a person's office.in which they are sitting. at their desk. facing said open restroom door.

i guess the good thing is that, today, i was not the person sitting in the office the whole time. (officially and forevermore this office shall be known as the "room with a view.")the not-so-good thing is that i was the one who walked into the seemingly-open-but-definitely-in-use restroom.

there are days when i wonder if, during the mayhem and madness of our lives, i am doing my best to raise these amazing boys of ours. and then something like this happens. and i know that, if nothing else, i taught them to shut the restroom door. little victories.

April 13, 2012

did you really think i was going to post a tragic picture of myself?if you did, you are just silly. i have far too many to choose from to spend my time on that. . . if you really wanted a fail photo, here you go:

(this was legitimately how anth smiled for a while there. . . thankfully this sorted itself out eventually.)

anyway.now you have a Friday Fail Photo.bonus prize: you get a story, too.here's how it goes:

recently, i walked in to the Kroger near benny's day care. i grabbed a few items, including a bottle of wine. at the register, the cashier asked to see my ID.he glanced at the date on the card, and instantly exclaimed, "OH MY GOD!"it was a visceral response. i thought maybe a spider had crawled onto his hand from the way he was looking at it. (don't ask. it's just the first thing that came to mind at 5:46 in Kroger.)

he then looked up at me to share, "you TOTALLY don't look as OLD as you ARE."um....thanks?perhaps?yes.i am going to choose to perceive that as a compliment and not a testament to false advertising on my part.

mental note: raise boys not to give backhanded compliments. or fronthanded insults?i'm not sure. just raise more savvy boys.wait. not MORE savvy boys. 2 is enough.just savvier boys.don't want to start any rumors...

April 6, 2012

remember yesterday?(when all your troubles seems so far away...? how you need a place to hide way....)anyway.yesterday.i shared the tale of benny's "careers" classroom rubric last month. and walking in to find a lovely little statement about how he wants to be a doctor. (which makes me wonder if he overheard a Med Center kiddo talking first, as he has NEVER mentioned the medical field before.)he usually aspires to be things like iron man. anyway, here is the "career aspiration" that was not posted on the wall.this was in his mailbox:

this sounded a WHOLE lot more like the benjamin i know. though i was slightly confused by what exactly "pirate snacks" were. and why they were good enough to drive his career choice.

until. we.went.to.target.the very same day. and we got near the snack aisle. and my sweet 4-year-old belted out, "Mommy! let's get some booty! i want booty!!!!"

he was pointing to these:

Pirate's Booty truly is a tasty snack.

yum.

however, i am now convinced that there is some sarcastic person on staff there, giggling at the public mortification they are causing parents-in-the-snack-aisle everywhere.

(perhaps this is the same individual who named the Toy Story character "Woody.")

now i'm bummed that my field doesn't come with a designated snack.

(though some would argue it might be pizza based on the volumes served in the residence halls.)

however, bern and i will now work to get ben involved in the proper activities to support his life goal of becoming a Pirate Doctor.

April 3, 2012

i love Clinique Bonus Time. (yes, so much that i honor it with proper capitalization)i literally stalk it on the clinique website. i have essentially collected a lifetime supply of miniature mascaras and eyeshadows via Bonus Time, in exchange for buying products i already needed anyway. it's a general win-win.it is currently Bonus Time at our local Macy's stores.yay!on the way home from work recently, i grabbed benny and ran into what is locally known as the "blue Macy's."this is because it is a stand-alone macy's in the middle of a local shopping center. and because it is blue. i particularly like this one because it is not attached to a mall. thus, no onslaught of people.and also, no temptation. also, also...no benny begging me for Auntie Anne's cinnamon sticks.

anyway. at the heart of the Blue Macy's is the Clinique counter. and, across the aisle from that is the Fossil section. if i didn't have ben with me, i could probably kill a good 30-35 minutes wandering around this 400 square feet of space. i was in the middle of doing just that, starting first at the Fossil and working my way slowly toward Clinique. (i mean, there were people in line at the Clinique counter. why crowd them?)i was busy exploring the inner pockets and flaps of some new bag or another when benny suddenly darted away from me and into the tiled aisle.

"benny, come back here with mommy!""no, mom! there's music!"at this point, benny put his arms straight out at his sides and began sporadically spinning in circles and swinging his hips back and forth. picture a helicopter.with something terribly broken inside of it. by this time, ben had attracted the attention of the women at the Clinique counter. i was doing my best version of a sound-serious-enough-to-get-my-kid-back-over-here-but-not-TOO-serious voice to coax benny back to my side. he completed a few more spins back in my direction, topping it off with a semi-Heisman stance.

then he put his hands on his hips, and looked at me with one eyebrow raised. "THAT is how you ninja dance."